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20 September 2004 No.42

ACA Newsletter

September

Academic Cooperation Association
Rue d'Egmontstraat 15, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium

As requested by many who were attending the 16th EIAE Annual Conference taking place in Torino this week and could therefore not register on time, the deadline for the early-bird registration fee for the forthcoming ACA Conference in Hamburg “Opening up to the Wider World: The External Dimension of the Bologna Process” is exceptionally extended by one week, until Friday, 24 September 2004.

The conference will review the core elements of the Bologna reforms (BMD-structure, ECTS, QA, etc.), guided by the overarching question in which way exactly these reforms will help to improve the reputation and attractiveness of European higher education in the world. In a second step, the conference will look at additional measures, e.g. European-level information and marketing measures in non-European countries, the creation of more internationally attractive programmes, ways to increase mobility into Europe, and the “export” of European higher education “products”. Finally, it will take up points raised in the Prague and Berlin Communiqués, such as the role of a common framework of qualifications and look into initiatives like Erasmus Mundus. “Regional sessions” with experts from non-European countries will clarify the impact of the Bologna reforms in other world regions.

Among the speakers are the following internationally renowned experts: David Coyne (European Commission), Peter Scott (ACA President, Kingston University, UK), Peter van der Hijden (European Commission), Christian Tauch (German Rectors’ Conference), Sjur Bergan (Council of Europe), Rolf Hoffmann (German Fulbright Commission), Pieter van Dijk (NUFFIC), Ulrich Teichler (University of Kassel), Salvador Malo (CENEVAL) and Christian Bode (DAAD).

More information about the conference is available on our website:

By the time this edition of the ACA Newsletter reaches you, a new publication produced by Maria Kelo and Bernd Wächter of ACA will have come out. The study, of the title Brain Drain and Brain Gain, was commissioned and will be published by Nuffic, ACA’s Dutch member. It is one of the “inputs” into a high-level international conference which Nuffic will hold, as part of the official programme of the Dutch Council Presidency, in The Hague on 29 and 30 September. The conference, entitled “Brain Gain – The Instruments”, addresses the theme of migration, as does the publication. The study’s focus is on future migration in the framework of the enlarged European Union, with a special emphasis on the migration of the highly skilled.

The ACA Secretariat is also proud to announce the publication, around mid-October, of a new book in its series ACA Papers on International Cooperation in Education. The Admission of International Students into Higher Education. Policies and Instruments, was written by Franziska Muche (lead author), Maria Kelo and Bernd Wächter (support authors).

Going Global will focus on the challenges and opportunities facing the education and training sector in the world.

The main themes will be International strategies and policies of national governments, international students and their mobility, the international dimension of education delivery, the role of English in communication, marketing education and training.

Bringing together education professionals, policy-makers and practitioners from the UK and around the world, the conference will provide opportunities to share knowledge and experience consider new research and innovations and engage in debate and discussion.

In partnership with over twenty French universities EduFrance has developed a portal for foreign students who are interested in studying law in France. This website aims to attract some of the best international students and to enable France to position itself as a major destination for the study of civil law. EduDroit provides information on the French higher education system, law qualifications, study bursaries and French language training. Details about specific law courses can be obtained by selecting key words in the search engine. In early 2005 prospective students should also be able to fill out an on?line application for certain Masters courses starting in September 2005.

IELTS Australia Pty Ltd, a subsidiary company of IDP Education Australia, has won a prestigious education export award and is now in the finals of the 2004 Australian Export Awards which will be announced in December.

The ACT (Australian Capital Territory) Education Export Award recognised IELTS Australia, which was first established in 1991, for administering, marketing and delivering the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) through operations in 33 countries around the world.

The award was presented in recognition of a powerful branding strategy, innovative marketing and promotion, and a focus on maintaining the integrity and security of the test to education institutions, governments and professional associations. The IELTS test is owned, managed and delivered around the world via a partnership between IELTS Australia, the British Council and the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations. It is an internationally recognised test of English language proficiency which assesses all four language skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking.

The Secretariat would like to introduce to you its new stagiaire. Axelle Devaux, from France, has joined the secretariat after completing an internship at the European Commission, Directorate-General Education and Culture, where she was working in the Socrates, Erasmus and Jean Monnet unit.
Axelle studied Law and European studies at the University of Lille. Having been a mobile student, Axelle also studied at the University of Warwick, UK, and at the University of Saarbrücken, Germany, as part of the Erasmus programme.

Welcome, Axelle!

2. European Policy

José Manuel Barroso announced the distribution of the different policy portfolios to the member of the new Commission.

The members of the new Commission are 3 Prime ministers, 4 foreign ministers, 3 finance ministers, 3 Europe ministers, 7other Ministers, 1 MEP, 4 MPs, of which 3 are original Prodi Commissioners. 8 of them are women, athe average age is 54. Most of them are affiliated to a political party: 8 EPP, 7 PES, 6 ALDE, 1 Green, 1 UEN and 2 non-aligned.

He allocated the Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism portfolio to the Slovakian Jàn Figel’, who was responsible for Information Society alongside Erkki Liikanen in the former Commission. The content of the Directorate-General has changed too: Viviane Reding, who was previously EAC Commissioner (education, training, youth, audiovisual affairs, culture, sport and civil society), is now responsible for Information Society and Media. Jàn Figel’ is a scientist (electronic engineering) but he also have an educational background in European Affairs. He has occupied several political functions in Slovakia and for European Affairs.

The new Commissioner for Science and Research is Janez Potocnik. He is an economist, and was Minister for European Affairs in Slovenia before joining the Commission. He was responsible for enlargement alongside Günther Verheugen in the Prodi Commission.

For further information about the new Commission:

Fifty two European scientific organisations have signed a mass petition calling for urgent actions in the establishment of the European research Council (ERC)

The ERC would be a pan European funding organisations for basic research at European level.

This appeal, launched by Initiative for Science in Europe, was signed by the main European scientific organisations. It stresses the need to accelerate the creation of the ERC at the political level altogether with the scientific community.

The letter says clearly that such an ERC is needed to lead the science in Europe to the highest level, as research is ‘vital for a knowledge-based society’. This includes science education and communication about science culture. This ERC is to be ‘independent and must adhere to strict criteria of scientific excellence and originality’. The aim of the ERC is to impove cooperation in science research effort in terms of funding and direction. But this would help loos of talent, especially Vis à Vis the US. ‘It is a matter of urgency to strenghten basic research in Europe and to provide the next generation of scientists with the proper means and working environment’.

The European communication network designed exclusively for resarch and education use will receive 93 million euros from the Commission to upgrade its services. This network, launched in 2001 in the frame of the European research Area, connects 29 National Reseach and Education Networks across Europe and give them the possibility to share data in the most advanced network of this kind in the world. It is an important tool in term of research about communication, and in term of communication itself.The new Network wil provide faster and more powerful services and end-to-end connectivity for the scientists.

The European Commission is seeking proposals for projects in the EU and in eligible countries in Asia, with financial assistance from the Asia-Link Programme.

The Asia-Link Programme is designed to foster co-operation in the field of higher education between the European Union and South and South-East Asia and China.

The Programme comprises the following three strands for which grant support may be offered: Partnership projects; Information Support and Studies; Capacity-Building Actions.

4. Other Sources

Pupils will not apply to university until they have received their A-level results under plans announced yesterday by Charles Clarke, the UK Education Secretary. In the most radical change to university admissions for more than 50 years, the system of offering places on the basis of applicants' predicted grades will be scrapped.

Evidence published yesterday by the Schwartz committee, designed to end the middle class stronghold on university places by making the admissions system fairer and more transparent, suggested that half the predictions teachers made were inaccurate, depriving students of a place at the university to which they were best suited

As expected, the final report from the Admissions to Higher Education Steering Group strongly backs a new admissions system known as PQA (Post Qualifications Application) based on students' actual, rather than predicted, results.

Professor Steven Schwartz, vice-chancellor of Brunel University, led the taskforce and said students' predicted grades, which are used in the current applications process, were "highly unreliable data". "Half of all predicted grades are wrong," said Prof Schwartz. "There are a large number of people who could be admitted to our selective universities who are never there. We have come to the conclusion that we really do have to seriously move to a post-qualification admissions system because the current one is just not fair."

This review was welcomed by university heads but condemned by students as a "missed opportunity" that would raise more hurdles to higher education. The National Union of Students said it was disappointed that the Schwartz review was recommending additional American-style tests, which would favour those who could afford coaching, and continued to focus on A-levels. Its plea for an independent body to monitor what universities were doing was ignored.

NUS vice-president for education, Hannah Essex, said: "NUS believes applicants should be assessed on their potential rather than simply grades. Students' abilities often stretch beyond the grade, and we believe that a more holistic approach should be taken when assessing student ability in order to improve access for those from less traditional backgrounds. [American] Sat tests give an unfair advantage to those who can afford to pay for coaching or are lucky enough to go to a school which would provide adequate preparation for these tests”.

The government appointed taskforce admitted, however, that it does not have the power to force universities to toe the line.

(Source: The Guardian)

On 27 July of this year, the German constitutional court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) declared part of the most recent reform of the country’s Higher Education Framework Act as null and void. The ruling concerns the qualifications required of candidates for the country’s new “junior professorships”. A number of German states governed by the conservative CDU/CSU had objected to the drop of the “Habilitation” as a requirement for appointment to a junior professorship. The court ruled that this issue cannot be regulated at the federal level, but must be largely left to the individual states (Länder). Efforts are now under way to secure with other means that requirements on a junior professor will not be too diverse in the 16 states of the country.

Many observers feel that the significance of the ruling goes far beyond the issue of junior professors. A number of states, all of which are governed by the Christian Democrats and Liberals, have appealed to the constitutional court to declare as unconstitutional the present legal ban on tuition fees. The chief supporter of this ban is the federal government, composed of the Social Democrats and Greens. The court’s ruling is expected for late 2004 or early 2005. It is now expected by many that the court will take a position similar to the one on the junior professorships and rule that this matter is to be decided over by the Länder. This would most certainly lead to the introduction of tuition fees in the majority of Germany’s states, if not in all of them.

An entirely new Nordic body for research, NordForsk, is to be established in 2005. NordForsk which is meant to assume the central role in the realising the vision of making the Nordic Region a leading and integrated research region, will replace the Nordic Research Policy Council and NorFa, the Nordic Academy for Advanced Study.

NordForsk is an independent entity under the Nordic Council of Education and Research, and will assume responsibility for Nordic collaboration in the fields of research and education of researchers. National research councils, other institutions that finance research, and universities are the central actors in NordForsk.

The focal point of the collaboration is the research areas in which the Nordic countries are scientifically strong or even world leaders. The aim is to facilitate world class research. Underpinning the initiative is the assumption that the Nordic countries together would be in stronger position to obtain European research funding than the individual countries.

A new bill has been put forward on the introduction of tuition fees for non EU/EEA students studying in Denmark outside the exchange programmes. The governmental financing to the institutions for these students will at the same time be withdrawn.

A scholarship programme including tuition fee waiver for higher qualifying students is another proposal.

(Source: Cirius, www.ciriusonline.dk/eng/)

5. Publications

More people are studying for longer periods in OECD countries, but educational patterns are uneven. Which countries are doing well, and which countries could be performing better? How will today's generation fare in tomorrow's society?

These are some of the questions to be addressed in the 2004 edition of the OECD's annual Education at a Glance, a widely-quoted compendium of comparative statistics that provide the basis for policy debate and decisions in the world's most developed countries. This year's edition was published at 11.00 a.m. Paris time on Tuesday 14 September 2004.

The focus of the 2004 edition of Education at a Glance is on the quality of learning outcomes, the policy levers and contextual factors that shape these outcomes, and the broader private and social returns that accrue to investments in education. For the first time, the publication also provides indicators on how the labour market returns to education have evolved over time as education systems have expanded.

For further information:

The extent to which universities and their internationalisation activities have truly changed due to processes of globalisation and regionalisation is a core question that will be addressed by looking at the ways in which universities cooperate across borders. Contemporary international collaborative activities can be assumed to reach deeper at the hart of the university than earlier, more marginal activities. Consequently, these activities present more challenges to existing structures and routines. In this way, the study of international arrangements among universities can be considered a microcosm for studying the impact of globalisation and regionalisation on universities.

6. Upcoming Conferences

September 30
Nuffic Conference: “Brain Gain: the Instruments”
The Hague, the Netherlands
www.nuffic.nl

October 4-8
18th IDP Australian International Education Conference: “International Education: The Path to Cultural Understanding and Development”
Sydney, Australia
www.idp.com/conference

October 10-12
Dutch EU Presidency Bologna Seminar: “Designing policies for mobile students”
Noordwijk, the Netherlands
http://www.eu2004.nl/

October 11-12
3rd OECD Forum: “Trade in Educational Services”
Sydney, Australia
www.oecd.org/edu/higher

October 25-29
12th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies: “Education and Social Justice”
Conference Centre of Havana, Cuba
www.hku.hk/cerc/wcces

December 1-3
Online Educa Berlin – 10th International Conference on Technology supported Learning and Training
Berlin, Germany
http://www.online-educa.com/en/

December 8-10
Going Global: The UK’s first international education conference
Edinburgh, UK
Website and Registration:
www.britishcouncil.org/goingglobal

CONTENTS

2. European Policy

4. Other Sources

5. Publications

6. Upcoming Conferences